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Stuart,

 

I suspect like many of these cars, it is an "Abarthed-up" Fiat 500 with some Abarth bits like the wheel centres, arch flares and a propped up engine cover. It does not have a circular Scorpion badge on the front like it should have and also it should have about 10º of negative camber on the back wheels. Every self respecting young Italian wanted to make his cooking 500 into a 595 or 695SS.

 

My father in a moment of pure insanity, bought at the Glasgow Motor Show in 1962, for my mother, who was an epically slow and bad driver, a Simca Abarth 1300 twin cam coupé. The engine made next to no power below around 4500RPM and my mother was completely incapable of driving it. I was just coming up to 17 years old and was really looking forward to giving it some serious exercise. Sadly an ultimatum was issued and it was quickly replaced with a Renault Floride (Yerchhhh!), the fille de nuit's version of the sad Dauphine.

 

I will look for a puzzle for you all.

 

Wilson

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What's about this one ? For someone can be easy, I suspect... ;)

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Here is your next one. A rather small blown up crop taken in heavy rain but I think you should still get it.

 

Wilson

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Correct a 1.6 HF Coupé rally replica. This one has a Fanalone (ish) front, like the works cars did. It may have the bigger inner headlights but you can't see properly behind the spots. I don't think it is a real Fanalone, because they also have chrome trims round the small oval air intakes on the lower valance (anorak warning :)).

 

I had the earlier version of this car, the series 1 1.3 HFS which came with a close ratio 4 speed box, rather than the 5 speed of later cars. The tiny jewel of a DOHC narrow angle V4 1300cc engine produced an amazing for the period, 118BHP.

 

It had two serious problems. Firstly like all steel bodied Lancias of the period, it would dissolve into a brown heap of rust at the first shower of rain. Secondly, it had very, very little torque at low revs and first gear was capable of over 50 MPH. Hill starts were close to impossible but nevertheless, it was a lovely little car to drive.

 

The Fulvias were the last Lancia before FIAT took over manufacture, probably in despair at the amount of money lost on each car. Prior to that, Lancias were made irrespective of cost (a bit like an Italian M4). Inside there was a slide out fitted drawer under the glove compartment with a set of tools, all marked "Automobili Lancia SPA".

 

Your turn

 

Wilson

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Something a little quintessential -

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.... Firstly like all steel bodied Lancias of the period, it would dissolve into a brown heap of rust at the first shower of rain......

Wilson

 

My wife had a Fulvia Coupe, a typical "female car" 30 years ago (not HF, of course... ;)) and was very careful to clean it at std. carwash as LESS as possible... :o

 

In Italy there was a sort of urban/industrial legend about the problems of rust in Fulvias... Lancia, when indipendent, did bought steel for bodyworks from Fiat facilities (Lancia owned only a foundry in Bolzano, for engines) ... Fulvias were models which threatened the dominance of Fiat in that product range (Fiat 1100s and then Fiat 124)... in conclusion, Fiat provided them low quality alloys... Lancia complained and didn't pay... but went on to use them... in some years, they piled up a big debt with Fiat, which at the end took over them for a symbolic price (at the time, the disclosed sum was 1000 Italian Liras)

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It was acknowledged in the UK that certain Fiats, Lancias & Alfa's used steel from what was originally retired Russian tanks! Whatever, the 124's and 125's where a joy to drive. The Alfa Suds - woweee miniature Ferraris :D if you drove a Lancia - man you had arrived :)

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The story I heard was that Fiat had a team going round Italy picking up all the corned beef tins left behind by the allied forces during the war. These were then made into Lancia's bodies. :)

 

My father was going to buy a Flavia Coupé in around 1963 but as we lived in the north of Scotland, with snowy, wet or salty roads for a lot of the year, was dissuaded from doing so and bought a Ruddspeed Volvo 121 instead. Nothing like as pretty but probably a sensible decision.

 

Wilson

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....My father was going to buy a Flavia Coupé in around 1963 ....

 

:) My father too, and EXACTLY in 1963 (I do remember well, was my first year at school... :o) ... but then thought that me and my elder sister were growing.... and that his single sister often travelled with us... no more time for coupes (his heart was still with his Aurelia B20 "before marriage and children") and ended up with the honest Fiat 1500...

 

Flavia was a fine Pinin design, anyway :

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In the mid '70s my boss insisted that the proper way to pronounce Lancia was lahn-CEE-uh since that sounded Italian to him. He didn't like the correct pronunciation.

 

When a colleague was about to buy a Cayman I shamed him into pronouncing Porsche with two syllables. He still mispronounces Audi as AW-dee.

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Daewoo was the pronunciation most including me, got wrong. Not long before they went bust and were bought by GM, I quoted for a "Year's free insurance sales incentive scheme" for Daewoo UK and had meetings with a whole bunch of Koreans. Tay-oo is the correct way to say it they told me.

 

Wilson

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